Is Dana a reliable narrator?

Analysis: The Fight, Parts 9–12

In some ways, Dana is an unreliable narrator. Her own narration clearly foreshadows events that she never sees coming, an obliviousness that Butler creates intentionally.

What does Dana represent in Kindred?

Dana is the narrator and heroine of the novel. A young black woman writer living in the end of the twentieth century, she finds herself plunged into the antebellum South of the nineteenth century, an alien world in which she must struggle to establish an identity and to maintain her freedom.

Who is the speaker in Kindred?

Kindred uses a first-person narrator, which means that Dana is telling her story from her own perspective. She relates her own thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and experiences. Other characters—such as Rufus, Alice, and Kevin—are known to the reader only through her perceptions of them.

What happens to Dana in Kindred?

Dana travels back to 1976 after a man attacks her in the woods. Once back, she and Kevin figure out that she goes back in time whenever Rufus needs his life saved and she comes back to 1976 whenever she thinks her life's in danger. Dana continues travelling back in time.

Who does Dana teach to read?

Nigel, who is thirteen, asks Dana to teach him to read. She asks him whether he understands the danger involved. In answer, he shows her his back, which is scarred from the whip.

Reliable vs. Unreliable Narrators

Who is Dana Franklin?

The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Dana is a black woman from 1979 California who gets pulled back in time to Antebellum Maryland to save the life of her white ancestor, Rufus Weylin.

How is Dana resourceful in Kindred?

Dana, the protagonist in Kindred, has a few traits that influence her relationships with others. Dana tries to do whatever she can to help her friends with whatever resources she has. Whatever Dana sets her mind to do, no matter how difficult, and no matter the consequences she always manages to get it done.

How is Dana an unreliable narrator in Kindred?

In some ways, Dana is an unreliable narrator. Her own narration clearly foreshadows events that she never sees coming, an obliviousness that Butler creates intentionally. Butler wants us to understand that when it comes to Rufus, Dana has a blind spot.

Why does Dana cut her wrists kindred?

Dana and Rufus have always had a tacit agreement: she will save him and care for and about him, and he will respect her. Rufus has repeatedly broken the spirit of that agreement, but when he lays his hand on her, he physically breaks the pact. Fury at this betrayal may be part of what motivates Dana to cut her wrists.

What is the significance of Dana losing her arm?

Significantly, Dana seems to lose her arm because Rufus keeps hold of her wrist when she transports back to the present. Rufus' touch symbolically represents the power that Rufus had as Dana's master and the lingering effect that living under the white master's thumb had on enslaved people and their children.

What is the point of the view of the novel Kindred?

Narrator/Point of View

Kindred uses a first-person narrator, which means that Dana is telling her story from her own perspective. She relates her own thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and experiences. Other characters—such as Rufus, Alice, and Kevin—are known to the reader only through her perceptions of them.

What is the irony in Kindred?

Ironically, Dana's cousin, who sees her after she returns home from being beaten by Tom Weylin, believes that Kevin has beaten her, and the cousin is very disappointed that Dana allowed it.

Why does Dana always forgive Rufus?

Dana reflects that Rufus loves her because she cares about him. She wonders why she does not hate him, as Alice does, and why she keeps forgiving him. Despite her fondness for Rufus, she thinks she would kill him if he tried to rape her.

How are Dana and Alice different?

Alice has been shaped by her time period, just as Dana has been shaped by hers. Alice has been deprived of an education and basic human rights; Dana has been educated and allowed to control her own life. While Alice has a natural fighting spirit, the brutality of her life has broken her down.

How does Dana influence Rufus?

A black woman, Dana, travels back and forth through the times when her great-great-grandfather, Rufus, gets in danger. Since Rufus was raised by slave-owning environment, Dana attempts to prevent Rufus from being like his abusive father. Unfortunately, during these travels Dana sees Rufus mature into a brutal person.

What does Dana lose in the prologue?

Summary: Prologue

Without explaining what she means, the narrator, Dana, reveals that on her last trip home, she lost her arm. She says she also lost her sense of security and about a year of her life.

What does the ending of kindred mean?

After Helen realizes that Frank is her real father, she regains memory of the fateful night – her adoptive father, Robert, overwhelmed by guilt, had confessed to his part in the crimes committed, while relaying her true parentage to her.

Why does Dana write letters for Rufus?

Summary: The Story, Part 9

Rufus tells Dana to write letters for him to his creditors. She says in her own time, she avoided secretarial work, and he smiles and says Kevin told him that she was a writer. He offers her some paper to use as she pleases and says he doesn't want to sell any more slaves.

What does Sarah Warn Dana about?

She warns Dana that Margaret wants Kevin and that she dislikes Dana because Dana has him.

What are the themes in Kindred?

Kindred looks at the practice of slavery in the American South from the perspective of a Black woman in the 1970s. Like many of Butler's other books, this one engages the reader with themes of race, power, gender, and class through the use of skillful storytelling.

Who beat up Rufus in Kindred?

Summary: The Fight, Part 3

Dana wonders if she is pregnant with Hagar, Rufus's child and Dana's ancestor. Isaac knocks Rufus unconscious, and Dana intervenes to prevent him from killing Rufus, asking him to consider what will happen to him and Alice if he doesn't restrain himself.

How does the relationship between Dana and Rufus develop?

Butler's Kindred, Dana and Rufus's relationship is intricate in the following ways: Dana is more of a guardian to Rufus, Rufus and Dana become companions, and he finally starts acting like a slave owner while she starts acting like a slave that Rufus owns.

How did Kevin change in Kindred?

By the end of the book, Kevin is a changed person just like Dana. He can never forget the horrible things he's seen and he is very happy to know that slave owners like Rufus Weylin are all dead and gone. He's a nice guy, but his sympathies only go so far.

How does Alice change in Kindred?

Alice starts life as a free woman, but gets thrown into slavery after she tries to run away with a fugitive slave named Isaac. Alice is disgusted by Rufus Weylin's attempts to have sex with her, but finally gives in after Dana talks her into it.